Creating your own smartphone apps for Android is quite easy thanks to the free MIT App Inventor environment, and a neat demonstration of this has been provied by Kevin Chen whose RGB colour display app shows how to send serial data over Bluetooth from an Android smartphone in order to control an RGB LED.

Although this is a minimal application, Kevin has provided both the Arduino sketch and the sequence of events for the MIT App Inventor, so you can rapidly get an understanding of how apps are created with this live example. Finally, you can see this in action through the following video:

As part of the Arduino and Bluetooth experience you'll need a Bluetooth device for your Arduino projects, and to meet this need we've released our new Freetronics Bluetooth Shield:

We've made it simple to use - the Bluetooth Shield acts as a serial link between the other Bluetooth device. Furthermore there's a wide range of jumpers allowing you to select which digital pins to use for data transfer, increasing compatibility with other shields. And with our Quick Start guide it's easier than ever.